BROOKINGS — Make it nine wins in a row for South Dakota State over their rivals from South Dakota, as the Jackrabbits routed the Coyotes 90-71 on Saturday in front of a First Bank & Trust Arena-record crowd of 4,764.
The Jacks never trailed and pretty much dominated from the jump, racing out to a big early lead and slowing down the Summit League’s highest-scoring offense for a convincing rivalry victory.
Kalen Garry had 19 points and 9 rebounds to lead five Jackrabbits who scored in double figures. SDSU is now 24-8 against USD in the Division I era, including 14-1 in Brookings, where crowds like the one that was on hand Saturday continue to make an impact on the game.
“It was a special day,” said Garry, who made more 3-pointers in nine attempts (5) than USD did in 24 tries (4). “We had a great crowd, the atmosphere was amazing and I thought we played really well as a team. We were very unselfish and got it done.”
Dave Bordewyk, SDNMA
For about 25 minutes, USD played pretty evenly with the Jacks. But the other 15 minutes were the first 15 minutes, and the Jacks (14-8, 5-2) pretty much won the game there.
The Jacks jumped out in front 19-7 in the first six minutes, then pushed it higher, going up by as much as 22.
“We came out timid,” said USD’s Chase Forte. “We needed a better start.”
The Coyotes were aggressively double teaming Jacks center Oscar Cluff, and while they succeeded in preventing the 6-11 big man from dominating in the paint, he simply kicked the ball out to SDSU shooters who made USD pay. Cluff had five assists in the first half alone and finished with seven, compensating for a quiet 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting. He also had 14 rebounds to spark SDSU’s 49-31 dominance on the glass.
Dave Bordewyk, SDNMA
Those factors alone probably would’ve resulted in a Jacks win. Add in that SDSU held the Coyotes to 15 points fewer than their average and forced that 4-for-24 effort from the 3-point line, and it was not a good recipe for USD. They had only six assists as a team.
“When we had it rolling (in a Thursday night win over UND) we were sharing the ball, getting paint touches and zipping it around,” said USD coach Eric Peterson. “(Saturday) we took too many 3s without paint touches and when you take some bad shots you can’t get into your press. When our pressure’s not very good we’re not a very good team.”
Dave Bordewyk, SDNMA
Forte, Isaac Bruns and Mayuom Buom had 11 points each for USD (12-10, 3-4) while Shey Eberwein and Quandre Bullock had 10, but the Coyotes never really resembled the team that’s scored 90 or more points nine times this year. SDSU’s defense had a hand in that.
“I thought we dictated the pace a little more than I thought we were gonna be able to,” said Jacks coach Eric Henderson. “I was happy with our guys’ stubbornness to make sure we got a good, intentional shot, and (on defense) we were protecting the paint fairly well. They’re relentless. They have good, downhill attack guys and we did a great job early of shutting some of those driving lanes off.”
Dave Bordewyk, SDNMA
Freshmen Owen Larson (18 points) and Stony Hadnot (14) both had season highs in scoring, while Matthew Mors added 10. The Jacks shot 48 percent and were 12-of-31 from deep.
“I think we just did a great job of preparing,” said Mors. “We did a really good job of locking in. We knew it’d be a fast-paced game but we tried to play at our pace and it worked for us.”
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at [email protected].
